The Area Study Centre for Europe of the University of Karachi and Rabita International Forum jointly organised a day-long conference titled ‘Future Prospects of Regional Connectivity through Dialogue in South Asia: Global and Strategic Perspectives’ at the National Institute of Management on Wednesday.
The keynote speaker Ambassador (retd) Najmuddin Sheikh sketched the history of efforts the diplomatic staff undertook to reach enhance regional cooperation. He reminded the audience that Pakistan had always sought to encourage greater regional connectivity.
Touching upon some recent developments, he highlighted the electoral setback the Modi dispensation suffered and whether this particular development would spur the hawks to adopt a more dovish posture towards Islamabad.
He remained highly skeptic of any such thing occurring in the foreseeable future. Moreover, according to him, if the things on the Radcliffe line were completed, the situation on the Durand Line too didn’t fill one with optimism.
The Taliban had refused to accept the multi-ethnic nature of Afghan polity coupled with the fact they were not destroying terrorists sanctuaries like those of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan.
The KU Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Professor Dr Shaista Tabbasum lamented the dysfunctional nature of SAARC and how mistrust between the two biggest actors, Pakistan and India, continued to hamper its progress.
Earlier, the acting Director of the KU Area Study Centre for Europe Professor Dr Uzma Shujaat said political animosities had left the South Asia the least integrated region in the world
The first academic session encompassed a variety of topics ranging from South Asian history to making nuclear energy as a tool of regional cooperation. Former ambassador Qazi Muhammad Khalilullah chaired the session. He stated that we had now entered the era of multi-polarity and that Pakistan was the hub of regional connectivity.
The Assistant Professor at Habib University Dr Asad-ur-Rehman read a paper on the challenges in the way of South Asian economic integration.
The Head of Research Department at the Rabita International Forum Syed Samiullah opined that nuclear energy could also be an agent of regional economic cooperation
An accomplished documentary filmmaker Haya Fatima Iqbal aired one of her short documentary films (Beltoon: The Story of a Separation) whose theme centered on human relations that got severed as a result of political upheavals. Here the context was the partition of subcontinent. An old man living in Loralai, Baluchistan remembered his Hindu acquaintance who had to leave and settle on the other side of the Radcliffe line. Fatima underscored that the instrument of art could be an extremely useful tool in fostering trans-frontier mutual understanding in a politically vitiated environment.
The final session was chaired by the former KU Chairperson Department of Political Science Dr Tanveer Khalid, and Associate Professor of Bahria University Amir Sultan attempted to apply the model of European integration on south Asia. At the very same time, he recognized that there were much dissimilarity. However, the fact that Europe successfully exorcised its nationalistic demons to open a path in the direction of greater prosperity was one lesson South Asia could take.
The Assistant Professor at FUUAST Dr Faisal Javed examined Russia’s strategic aspirations and engagements in South Asia and its implications for the prospects of regional connectivity.
Assistant Professor of SZABIST Dr Syeda Fizza Batool argued that Islamabad’s close ties with Washington had complicated the former’s relationship with Iran. Pakistan should focus on smaller regional groupings and explore areas of mutual interest like infrastructural development, energy trade, and cultural exchanges.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 6th, 2024.
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